Profile

Bhuvneshwar Kumar got his name etched in the history books when he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for his first first-class duck in Indian domestic cricket. The right-arm medium pacer was playing just his 11th first-class game.

Another one of Indian crickets extracts from the state of Uttar Pradesh, his predecessors being Praveen Kumar and RP Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is primarily known for his sharp in-swing and his ability to move the ball slightly away. Bhuvneshwar has been a consistent performer at the state level and also did well for his state's U19 side for two seasons, where he was preferred with the new ball ahead of either RP Singh or Praveen Kumar. Soon, he became a part of the UP senior side. He also came in handy with the bat, shedding himself off the "tail-ender" tag.

Bhuvneshwar was picked by the Bangalore franchise in the Indian T20 League and represented the team for the first three seasons. In 2011, he was signed by Pune where he played more games than he did for Bangalore. Owing to some impressive performances in the domestic circuit, Bhuvneshwar was handed a national call-up when he was included in India's T20I squad against Pakistan. It was a fruitful debut, as he picked 3 wickets in his maiden international outing. His career graph took a snake-head climb from there on, turning into a consistent wicket-taker in ODIs. In his first Test series, against Australia, Kumar's new ball exploits helped India to their first clean sweep in a four-match Test series.

Road after that in Test cricket as well as ODIs was not as smooth as he expected. He struggled in the home Test series against West Indies and later was not included in the starting eleven on the tours of South Africa and New Zealand. But he bowled extremely well in the World T20 giving India many economical starts. Bhuvneshwar was bagged by Hyderabad team for Rs. 4.25 crores in the seventh season of Indian T20 League.